1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and program for a policy based storage manager.
2. Description of the Related Art
A policy based storage management framework specifies how data having certain characteristics is associated with different pools of storage space that will store such data, as well as how the data will be managed throughout its lifecycle. One prior art policy based storage management framework, described in the commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,060, which patent is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, describes a policy based storage management framework that provides constructs including data classes, storage classes, and management classes that are used to select storage devices for a data file or data set based on the characteristics of the data file. A data class specifies data file logical attributes, such as data file type, record length, logical data storage space requirements, expiration and retention dates for the data, etc. A storage class defines a set of storage services, such as random access specifications, sequential access specifications, guaranteed space, etc. A management class specifies availability and retention management requirements for data, such as hierarchical storage management (HSM), expiration, backup frequency, retention of backup copies, etc.
An automatic class selection (ACS) routine receives a request to create or access a data file and then selects and assigns data, storage, and management classes that apply to the data file based on characteristics of the data file, e.g., application that generated data file, file name, date, owner of file and/or application, etc. The final selection is of a storage group based on the data, storage, and management classes assigned to the data. The storage group provides the allocation of physical storage space for the data file. With the described prior art policy based storage management framework, data files can be members of one data class, but be assigned to different storage and/or management classes, which determine to which storage group the data file is assigned.
The above described policy based storage management framework was primarily intended for systems in which a storage subsystem, such as a Direct Access Storage Device (DASD) is directly attached to a storage controller, that assigns hosts data to particular storage groups in the manner described above.
Notwithstanding, there is a need in the art for additional policy based storage management frameworks that may be used with both directly attached storage and indirectly attached storage, such as in a storage networking environment.